A number of senior officials at Ministry of Interior attended the weekly meeting at Al-Naham Diwaniya in Al-Salam area where they discussed a number of important issues, reports Al-Rai daily. Assistant Director General of General Department for Citizenship and Passport Affairs Colonel Khalid Bahwa explained that the total number of electronic passports that are expected to be issued is 1,360,000. So far 360,000 passports have been issued. The new passports are protected against forgery and include 55 marks that make it very difficult to be forged.

A number of countries mandate visitors to have electronic passport in order to enter those countries. He indicated that the deadline of May 5 for replacing all ordinary passports with electronic ones has not yet been finalized. Colonel Bahwa called on all citizens to fix appointments with citizen service centers, stressing that the website of citizen service centers, due to the recent upgrade, has many options that allow citizens to determine the time and place suitable for them.

He revealed that the ministry has addressed the institutions, which send patients overseas for medical treatment, to renew their passports before they travel, affirming the keenness of the ministry to give them higher priority. Colonel suggested that some employees can be assigned to visit the patients who cannot visit the ministry as well as the disabled in order to obtain their data.

Meanwhile, Assistant Director of Cybercrime Unit at Criminal Investigations Department Lieutenant Colonel Hamad Khorshid revealed that Kuwait is the only country in the region that has no tapping devices for recording telephone calls. He indicated that the total number of lawsuits and complaints received in 2017 was 4,100 out of which 2,707 were referred to the Public Prosecution.

Lieutenant Colonel Khorshid said the number of e-lawsuits has increased in the recent years. He warned against receiving messages from unknown sources outside Kuwait, indicating that they received 1,000 complaints in this regard and the complainants revealed that they were being blackmailed. “Despite the difficulty in finding the owners of fake accounts, some of them have been identified and arrested”, added Lieutenant Colonel Khorshid. He affirmed that the aim of the information and publishing law is to protect users from the crimes that could affect them, denying that it is aimed at limiting the freedom of citizens.